Richmond Park, home of deer - and vultures

As if the highest car parking charges in Britain weren't enough, the people of Richmond now have to contend with a vulture in their midst. An Indian white-backed vulture has taken up residence in leafy Richmond Park, where it joins the famous flocks of parakeets to bring a flavour of the subcontinent to the suburbs.

Dog owners and joggers need not be nervous: like all vultures, the Indian white-backed is a scavenger, feeding mainly on carrion. Until recently, vultures performed a vital role in Asia's ecology, cleaning up the corpses of animals and, indeed, enabling the famous "sky burials" to take place in Tibet. The last decade has, however, seen a catastrophic population crash amongst India's vultures, with numbers dropping by as much as 97% in some areas. It appears that the decline is due to diclofenac, a painkiller used to treat livestock, which kills the vultures when they feed on contaminated carcasses. Diclofenac has now been banned, but it may be years before India's vulture population recovers.

The Indian white-backed vulture is the latest in a long line of rare birds to appear in Britain, though because it is an escapee from captivity - the closest wild griffon vultures to Britain are found in the Alps and Pyrenees - it won't attract the hardcore twitchers. Most of them are currently heading down to the Devon seaside resort of Dawlish, where a long-billed murrelet, a tiny member of the auk family from the northern Pacific, is feeding along the tideline - the very first time this species has been seen in Britain.

Meanwhile, our vulture will be keeping a sharp lookout for anything dead or dying in Richmond Park. Its best hope is finding enough food to survive on before it can be recaptured.